Your Search Results

      • Trusted Partner
        November 2017

        The Secret of La Rosa

        by Donald Willerton

        It was just a short cross-country ski outing over the Christmas break for Mogi Franklin and his sister, Jennifer–until they find themselves suddenly caught in a vicious blizzard. Near collapse, they ski into a mysterious valley with an ancient hacienda, a busy Spanish family, and a village with no electricity, no plumbing, no cars, no phones, and definitely no Walmart.A vacation that began a few days earlier helping his Granddad clean and decorate for a huge family celebration had now become a mind-boggling mystery. And young Mogi's anguish trying to come to terms with his grandmother's death from cancer the previous Christmas turns to fear and danger when he is accused of stealing a religious icon the town prizes above all others–and which holds the key to solving an ancient legend of missing Spanish gold.It's the latest book of the exciting Mogi Franklin Mysteries–shadowy figures, secret societies, a town like no other. Is this all reality or illusion? Mogi must find the answers, even as he struggles with the memory of his grandmother's death and the mysteries of faith it brought him which he now must answer as well.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        May 2023

        Suicide and the Gothic

        by William Hughes, Andrew Smith

        Suicide and the Gothic is the first protracted study of how the act of self-destruction recurs and functions within one of the most enduring and popular forms of fiction. Comprising eleven original essays and an authoritative introduction, this collection explores how the act of suicide has been portrayed, interrogated and pathologised from the eighteenth century to the present. The featured fictions embrace both canonical and the less-studied texts and examine the crisis of suicide - a crisis that has personal, familial, religious, legal and medical implications - in European, American and Asian contexts. Featuring detailed interventions into the understanding of texts as temporally distant as Thomas Percy's Reliques and Patricia Highsmith's crime fictions, and movements as diverse as Wertherism, Romanticism and fin-de-siècle decadence, Suicide and the Gothic provides a comprehensive and compelling overview of this recurrent crisis in fiction and culture.

      • Trusted Partner
        Crime & mystery
        February 2014

        The Untouched Crime

        by Zijin Chen

        A mystery novel by Zijin Chen, a web celebrity famous for serial detective stories. The Untouched Crime tells a story about hunting the serial killer who tends to leave a fingerprint and a note saying “Catch Me!” at each crime scene. Except for these, there isn’t any other clues. Who is the murderer? Why the murder claimed that he kills for saving lives?

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        March 2017

        Asia in Western fiction

        by Robin Winks

        Any reader who has ever visited Asia knows that the great bulk of Western-language fiction about Asian cultures turns on stereotypes. This book, a collection of essays, explores the problem of entering Asian societies through Western fiction, since this is the major port of entry for most school children, university students and most adults. In the thirteenth century, serious attempts were made to understand Asian literature for its own sake. Hau Kioou Choaan, a typical Chinese novel, was quite different from the wild and magical pseudo-Oriental tales. European perceptions of the Muslim world are centuries old, originating in medieval Christendom's encounter with Islam in the age of the Crusades. There is explicit and sustained criticism of medieval mores and values in Scott's novels set in the Middle Ages, and this is to be true of much English-language historical fiction of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Even mediocre novels take on momentary importance because of the pervasive power of India. The awesome, remote and inaccessible Himalayas inevitably became for Western writers an idealised setting for novels of magic, romance and high adventure, and for travellers' tales that read like fiction. Chinese fictions flourish in many guises. Most contemporary Hong Kong fiction reinforced corrupt mandarins, barbaric punishments and heathens. Of the novels about Japan published after 1945, two may serve to frame a discussion of Japanese behaviour as it could be observed (or imagined) by prisoners of war: Black Fountains and Three Bamboos.

      • Trusted Partner
        Film theory & criticism
        February 2014

        Swedish crime fiction

        by Steven Peacock

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        October 2023

        The penny politics of Victorian popular fiction

        by Rob Breton

        Penny politics offers a new way to read early Victorian popular fiction such as Jack Sheppard, Sweeney Todd, and The Mysteries of London. It locates forms of radical discourse in the popular literature that emerged simultaneously with Brittan's longest and most significant people's movement. It listens for echoes of Chartist fiction in popular fiction. The book rethinks the relationship between the popular and political, understanding that radical politics had popular appeal and that the lines separating a genuine radicalism from commercial success are complicated and never absolute. With archival work into Newgate calendars and Chartist periodicals, as well as media history and culture, it brings together histories of the popular and political so as to rewrite the radical canon.

      • Trusted Partner
        Fiction
        2022

        The End of the Desert

        by Said Khatibi

        On a nice fall day of 1988, Zakiya Zaghwani was found lying dead at the edge of the desert, giving way to a quest to discover the circumstances surrounding her death. While looking for whoever was involved in the death of the young singer, nearby residents discover bit by bit their involvement in many things other than the crime itself. ///The story takes place in a town near the desert. And as with Khatibi’s previous novels, this one is also marked by a tight plot, revolving around the murder of a singer who works in a hotel. This sets off a series of complex investigations that defy easy conclusions and invite doubt about the involvement of more than one character. /// Through the narrators of the novel, who also happen to be its protagonists, the author delves into the history of colonialism and the Algerian War of Independence and its successors, describing the circumstances of the story whose events unfold throughout the month. As such, the characters suspected of killing the singer are not only accused of a criminal offense, but are also concerned, as it appears, with the great legacy that the War of Independence left, from different aspects.///The novel looks back at a critical period in the modern history of Algeria that witnessed the largest socio-political crisis following its independence in 1988. While the story avoids the immediate circumstances of the war, it rather invokes the events leading up to it and tracks its impact on the social life, while capturing the daily life of vulnerable and marginalized groups. /// Nonetheless, those residents’ vulnerability does not necessarily mean they are innocent. As it appears, they are all involved in a crime that is laden with symbolism and hints at the status of women in a society shackled by a heavy legacy of a violent, wounded masculinity. This approach to addressing social issues reflects a longing to break loose from the stereotypical discourse that sets heroism in a pre-defined mold and reduces the truth to only one of its dimensions.

      • Trusted Partner

        THE MYSTERIOUS TUNNEL ON BASEL STREET

        A Thriller for Young Readers

        by Pnina Ophir

        The story is set in a typical old-timers’ neighborhood in central Tel Aviv. For several decades, the neighborhood contained a firehouse and an emergency medical center, as well as a colorful open-air market. But one day, the character of the street changes completely: Bulldozers begin tearing down the buildings, which are to be replaced by two modern multistory houses and a paved public square. A group of sixth-graders living in the neighborhood discovers that, in addition to the construction company's excavations, another private excavation is under way. It transpires that a pair of criminals decided that the noise and commotion in the area provided a one-time opportunity to unearth a mysterious "treasure chest" that was buried under the old firehouse long ago. The children’s curiosity and courage ultimately lead to the capture of the criminals moments before the chest is found, which in turn solves the mystery.     A second book in this series, named The Magician from Motzkin Boulevard has already been written and a Hebrew-language edition will be published later this year. 96 pages, full-color hardcover with B/W illustrations inside, 15X22 cm

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        November 2012

        Gender, crime and empire

        convicts, settlers and the state in early colonial Australia

        by Kirsty Reid, Andrew Thompson, John Mackenzie, Martin Hargreaves

        Between 1803 and 1853, some 80,000 convicts were transported to Van Diemen's Land. Revising established models of the colonies, which tend to depict convict women as a peculiarly oppressed group, Gender, crime and empire argues that convict men and women in fact shared much in common. Placing men and women, ideas about masculinity, femininity, sexuality and the body, in comparative perspective, this book argues that historians must take fuller account of class to understand the relationships between gender and power. The book explores the ways in which ideas about fatherhood and household order initially informed the state's model of order, and the reasons why this foundered. It considers the shifting nature of state policies towards courtship, relationships and attempts at family formation which subsequently became matters of class conflict. It goes on to explore the ways in which ideas about gender and family informed liberal and humanitarian critiques of the colonies from the 1830s and 1840s and colonial demands for abolition and self-government. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2017

        Gender, crime and empire

        Convicts, settlers and the state in early colonial Australia

        by Kirsty Reid, Andrew Thompson, John M. MacKenzie, Martin Hargreaves

        Between 1803 and 1853, some 80,000 convicts were transported to Van Diemen's Land. Revising established models of the colonies, which tend to depict convict women as a peculiarly oppressed group, Gender, crime and empire argues that convict men and women in fact shared much in common. Placing men and women, ideas about masculinity, femininity, sexuality and the body, in comparative perspective, this book argues that historians must take fuller account of class to understand the relationships between gender and power. The book explores the ways in which ideas about fatherhood and household order initially informed the state's model of order, and the reasons why this foundered. It considers the shifting nature of state policies towards courtship, relationships and attempts at family formation which subsequently became matters of class conflict. It goes on to explore the ways in which ideas about gender and family informed liberal and humanitarian critiques of the colonies from the 1830s and 1840s and colonial demands for abolition and self-government.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        July 2014

        French crime fiction and the Second World War

        by Claire Gorrara

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        July 2022

        Nordic Gothic

        by Maria Holmgren Troy, Johan Hõglund, Yvonne Leffler, Sofia Wijkmark

        Nordic Gothic traces Gothic fiction in the Nordic region from its beginnings in the nineteenth century, with a main focus on the development of Gothic from the 1990s onwards in literature, film, TV and new media. The volume gives an overview of Nordic Gothic fiction in relation to transnational developments and provides a number of case studies and in-depth analyses of individual narratives. It creates an understanding of this under-researched cultural phenomenon by showing how the narratives make visible cultural anxieties haunting the Nordic countries, their welfare systems, identities and ideologies. Nordic Gothic examines how figures from Nordic folklore function as metaphorical expressions of Gothic themes and Nordic settings are explored from perspectives such as ecocriticism and postcolonialism. The book will be of interest to researchers and post- and- undergraduate students in various fields within the Humanities.

      • Trusted Partner
        October 2022

        My Father's Secret

        The BND, my family and I

        by Corinna von Bassewitz

        For a long time, Corinna von Bassewitz believed her father was a soldier, later on that he was a diplomat. Then, at the age of 16, she learnt something unbelievable: he had been a secret agent for the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND, Germany's Federal Intelligence Service). Once the secret had been at least partly uncovered, she became something of a spy herself and eventually found some confidential documents in her parents' attic. Later, she realised that her father had been living as a double agent for the FRG and the GDR. So what effect does it have on a girl if her father conceals his true identity and eventually disappears without trace? Along with her family history, the author provides multi-layered and exciting insights into the historical context of the Cold War. A very personal book, intriguingly told and emotionally touching.

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA

        Story Story, Story Come

        12 Reimagined Tales From Africa

        by Maïmouna Jallow

        However, the age-old tradition of oral storytelling is on the decline. Rapid urbanisation, the breakdown of the extended family, technology and so on have altered our social fabric. Whilst our daily lives are still peppered with snippets of remembered words of wisdom and proverbs, the reality is that a new generation of Africans have never had the pleasure of listening to a story being told by a storyteller. Story, Story! Story Come! is a contribution to larger efforts to revive storytelling in Africa and beyond. Through a global online contest, Positively African invited African writers, wherever they lived and whatever their age, to write a folktale – either based on an old one, or newly imagined. The challenge was to develop new narratives that speak to issues that are fundamental to Africa’s development in a way that is unconventional but true to our past traditions of folktale and oral storytelling. The stories needed to contain life lessons that are relevant for both young and old, however writers were invited to be as inventive and disruptive as they wished in terms of theme, form, language, characters, imagery and context. The ten winning stories are refreshingly imaginative and tackle a mix of issues. We criss-cross from South Sudan to South Africa, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Zambia. Some stories offer valuable moral lessons on greed and pride; others celebrate bravery, perseverance and friendship. One story takes us to a real archaeological site in Niger where a young girl imagines the future. In another, African water spirits share a world with a Beyoncé-obsessed teen that is taught a big lesson in humility. We have also included two additional stories, one by author and publishing partner Zukiswa Wanner and another by the editor of the anthology, Maimouna Jallow. One thing that they all have in common is that they speak to issues we face globally today, from an African perspective.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        June 2022

        Beef, Bible and bullets

        Brazil in the age of Bolsonaro

        by Richard Lapper, Leighton Pugh

        Backed by Brazil's wealthy agribusiness groups, a growing evangelical movement, and an emboldened military and police force, Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019. Driven by the former army captain's brand of controversial, aggressive rhetoric, the divisive presidential campaign saw fake news and misinformation shared with Bolsonaro's tens of millions of social media followers. Bolsonaro promised simple solutions to Brazil's rising violent crime, falling living standards and widespread corruption, but what has emerged is Latin America's most right-wing president since the military dictatorships of the 1970s. Famous for his racist, homophobic and sexist beliefs and his disregard for human rights, the so-called 'Trump of the Tropics' has established a reputation based on his polemical, sensationalist statements. Written by a journalist with decades of experience in the field, Beef, Bible and bullets is a compelling account of the origins of Brazil's unique brand of right-wing populism. Lapper offers the first major assessment of the Bolsonaro government and the growing tensions between extremist and moderate conservatives.

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA

        Siberian haiku

        by Jurga Vile, Lina Itagaki

        This graphic novel tells a story of a Lithuanian boy Algiukas, who in 1941 together with his family was deported to Siberia. His aunt Petronella brings along a book of the Japanese haiku poems. In exile, she inspires the deportees not to succumb to the despair and to see the beautiful side of life.   AWARDS Main Prize in Book Art Contest 2017 Best Book of the Year by IBBY Lithuania 2017 Best Illustrations for a Children’s Book by IBBY Lithuania 2017 White Raven 2017 The Aloysius Petrikas Literary Prize for Children’s Book of the Year 2018 Children’s Book of the Year 2018 (Lithuania) IBBY Honor List 2020 Nomination at the Angoulême International Comics Festival 2020 Selection for Children’s Book Jury in Latvia 2020 International Jānis Baltvilks Award in Latvia 2020 Nomination for Bologna Ragazzi Award 2020 in Italia Latvian edition of “Sibīrijas haiku” was included in the Latvian PEN list of the most important books published in Latvia in 2020 Nomination at the International Book Contest “Reading St. Petersburg,” 2021 (Russia) Nomination for Latvian Literature Prize 2020 Nomination for the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis 2021 in the young adult book category

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        2014

        History of Ukraine from KGB Secret Files

        by Volodymyr Viatrovych

        The unknown and classified KGB history of the largest country in Europe - Ukraine is the history of people, events, documents and files. The files have answers to many questions. The most important of which - why did a war begin again in Europe? Why is it so important for Russia to conquer Ukraine? Why are Ukrainians putting up such a powerful resistance? Historian Volodymyr Viatrovych, who declassified the secret archives of the Soviet special services from the Cheka to the KGB, talks about the history of Ukraine, the USSR and Eastern Europe from 1918 to 1991. The reader, is offered, along with various heroes and traitors, those who thought they were in control of events, and those who thought they had no power over them, to recreate the nearly century-old chess game between the Ukrainian liberation movement and the creators of the "prison of nations." Described in reports and recreated by a historian, this work looks at the cunning “special operations”, deadly moves, information wars and complex games among several players that are all an attempt to find an answer to the question: what creates our destiny - human will or circumstances?

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        October 2012

        Narration in nineteenth-century French short fiction

        Prosper Mérimée to Marcel Schwob

        by Peter Cogman

        The short fiction that flourished in nineteenth-century France has attracted relatively little critical attention compared with the novel. This study focuses on some key stories by major authors of contes and nouvelles from the late 1820s to the 1890s, taking as a starting-point, aspects of narrative technique as a way of exploring not just characteristic strategies of short fiction, but also the ends to which they were put: recurrent themes, and the vision of mankind. Each chapter looks in some detail at three or four stories, referring briefly to other tales for illustration. The underlying point that emerges from this study is that the interest of a tale lies in the telling, not the events. ;

      Subscribe to our

      newsletter